Santorum: Romney Has 'Undermined' Conservative Trust

Presidential hopeful Rick Santorum said Monday that since his endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2008, when he labeled the former Massachusetts governor the conservative candidate of choice, his rival has consistently “undermined” those credentials.

“Unfortunately over that four-year period of time, he’s done a lot of things that have undermined my trust in him,” Santorum told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren Monday. “And first was supporting the Wall Street bailout, second was advocating for Romneycare at the federal level, which he did in 2009 — he said, oh, it was just for Massachusetts, but he wrote op-eds, and went on television, and said that President Obama should follow the Massachusetts model.

“That’s the wrong approach — it’s a government run, top-down approach — it's the wrong approach for the federal government,” Santorum said. “I opposed Obamacare, and we can’t have a candidate in Mitt Romney who gives away the most important issue in the race, which is our economic freedom with Obamacare.”

The former Pennsylvania senator said as he has campaigned throughout Illinois before today’s primary, he has noted that while the economy has been an obvious voter concern, the overriding worry of most has been the loss of fundamental freedoms under President Barack Obama’s administration.

“I always talk about that there’s big things at stake in this election — that the economy is important, unemployment is important — but that’s not the big issue,” Santorum said. “The big issue is how we are losing our freedom, because really government controlling businesses and peoples’ lives is what's causing the economy to be in such bad straits right now.

“So we have to look at the fundamental issue — and the fundamental issue in America is whether we are going to be a free country or whether government is going to be dictating to us what healthcare, what loans, what cars, and everything else in our lives,” he said.